Historical Significance Of Beowulf Essay Research Paper

Historical Significance Of Beowulf Essay, Research Paper

Beowulf is an epic poem written, most likely, towards the end of the first millennium. It is considered a masterpiece and is the oldest known piece of English literature. Written in Old English, the story tells of magnificent heroes and terrible monsters, of the struggle between good and evil. Beowulf follows the style of the time, intended to be read aloud and one of few stories written in that manner successfully recorded. Because of the time period the story was told, it encompasses many different worldviews. Within the epic are found ideas common in the Christian faith, alongside the values of Germanic warriors of the Teutonic tradition. Each of the characters in Beowulf also have importance in both lines of thinking. The Anglo-Saxon poetry allows the reader to get a picture of the beliefs held by society of that time, and these beliefs are exemplified through the uses of the main characters. Though it’s a poem full of entertainment, once one looks beneath the surface and past the excitement found in Beowulf’s battles with mysterious monsters of the shadows, many more applications can be found within Beowulf’s pages.

Beowulf tells the tale of the Danes and how a horrible monster, Grendel, plagued them. Upon hearing of this great and powerful creature, Beowulf travels to Herot (the mead-hall built by Hrothgar) to ask permission to challenge Grendel. Upon receiving permission and defeating the beast, Beowulf must then try his hand again at the monster, Grendel’s Mother. She proves to be a more difficult battle, but Beowulf is successful none-the-less. After gaining the position of King of the Danes, fifty years pass before Beowulf must fight again. This time, the country is being torn apart by a dragon who is seeking revenge for stolen treasures. However, this fight proves to be Beowulf’s last, as the dragon is able to strike the final blow. Though he was able to defeat the dragon, he still pays the price of his own life for the safety of his people. Given a proper burial and many funeral speeches, the epic ends with a fond farewell to a great leader.

Crucial to understanding the importance of Beowulf’s place in society is the ideas of Christian and pagan thought found within the poem’s twelve episodes. Most obvious are the references to Christianity. These points are easily recognizable by the mentions of there existing one God. Many quotes from the text are evidence of this. When Beowulf and his men arrived safely on the shore, “they thanked God ” (page 5). Grendel’s anger is described as “he was hostile to God” (page 15). However, many times in the text, a character will refer to the grace of God and the presence of Fate in the same breath. These examples show that both ideas are intermingled in the thoughts of the author for one reason or another. One example of this is when Beowulf requests permission to fight Grendel and says “there he whom death takes my needs trust to the judging of the Lord” (page 8) (meaning that God will decide who shall be taken by death) and “Fate ever goes as it must” (page 9) in the same plea. The ideas of fate and God do not follow the same beliefs. This notion of fate is along another line of thinking entirely. The values of Germanic warriors at the time believed in fate and that their works on earth are what mattered most, along with wealth, power, and heroic deeds. Through the presence of characters and situations, the reader sees that both ideas are laid out in the text.

Four of the characters in Beowulf exemplify the ideas held by Christian and Pagan thought at the time. The first of these is Beowulf, himself. When looking at Beowulf from a Christian point of view, on sees that he exemplifies many qualities of the savior figure in the religious thought. When the Geats are in fear of another, powerful being, Beowulf is the one they put their trust in. When he fights the dragon at the end of the epic, the dragon’s lair is full of treasures and gold, but Beowulf is more concerned with his people than with the treasures he might discover. The poem directly states “But Beowulf was not greedy for gold; rather had he looked for the grace of the Almighty.” Also, when he fought Grendel’s Mother, upon viewing the sword hanging upon the wall, his response is “but the Ruler of men vouchsafed that I should see a huge old sword hang gleaming on the wall” (page 30), not that he somehow found it. He gives his credit to God, not himself. However, at the same time, there is a strong sense of heroic pride in Beowulf that at times is in direct conflict with the aforementioned Christian values. While his actions don’t lead the reader to believe that he is mostly concerned with his earthly works and wealth, there is evidence that he is certainly interested in being heroic and having power. He also refers both to the God and to fate as having a partnership in his future. He considers himself to be the only man able to save the Danes from their monsters, and though he is able to prove himself, at first the reader believes him to be unnecessarily prideful. His character brings both pagan and Christian elements into the epic, and is one of the many factors that leads scholars to debating the two contrasting views.

A second character who exemplifies pagan characteristics as well as Christian ideas is that of Hrothgar, King of the Danes. Hrothgar’s influence in the epic is more